Leipzig’s first koala baby Bouddi is no longer a baby at all, but a juvenile two years old. The weighing was recently on the program for the two-year-old little bear.
« It’s a bit of a grab bag when I’m kidding him. So far it’s always been good that he tolerated it, but at some point, he may realize his strength and fight back like his father, » said Pfleger Hunemeyer entering the « predator enclosure ».
As soon as he tried to pick up the koala, he was terribly frightened and clawed his foster dad’s neck. Ouch! But after two years, Philipp Hunemeyer knows how to touch Bouddy so that he stays calm.
« He’s always been a bit anxious, a little mama’s boy. But the longer the situation lasts, the more he can relax. I also talk to him a lot, he’s used to that, » the koala keeper explained his strategy.
And that works: after being weighed and brushed, Bouddi is carried back to his enclosure by Philipp Hünemeyer. In the end, there was also an athletic hop into the high branches of the cage. « Bouddy has always been the most powerful of all koalas, » marveled his keeper.
